Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Randall:

On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 10:12 PM, Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>wrote:

> [RB]
> I repeat the Qumran example, a third time, since you still can't find the
> infinitive main clause
> 4Q398 fr 14-17 (4QMMT C 25ff)
>
> זכור [את ]דויד שה[ו]א איש חסדים
> [ו]אפ ה[ו]א [נ]צל מצרות רבות
> ונסלוח לו
> ואף אנחנו כתבנו אליך מקצת מעשי התורה
> שחשבנו לטוב לך ולעמך
>
> >> try “w-nisloH lo”.
>
>
> [Karl]  > I read the short quote as an imperative statement.
> > Morphologically that is a possible reading. And when a statement is
> > imperative, one expects that the verb contained in that statement to be
> > imperative as well, even in Biblical Hebrew.
>
> The sad thing here, is that those who don't know Hebrew but who follow this
> list in English might assume that there must be some way for both sides to
> be right. 'Street wisdom' says that there are two sides to an argument.
> But here there is no argument. w-nslwH cannot be read as an imperative
> in the Hebrew language.
>

Why didn’t you clarify that that was the verb you meant? I thought you meant
a different verb. That makes this example a case of miscommunication.

ונסלח לו is found as a secondary verb in context with a primary verb, e.g.
Leviticus 4:20, 26, 31, 5:10, 13, etc.

ונסלוח לו is nowhere found in Tanakh.

That the Qumran document misuses the phrase in a way that it is not found in
Tanakh shows linguistic corruption, possibly ignorance where the writer
tried to make his document sound Biblical, and to do that, lifted a phrase
out of context and pasted it in his document (adding a waw). As such, that
Qumranic example cannot be used as an example to bolster your theory.


>
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicalulpan.org
> randallbuth AT gmail.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
>

Karl W. Randolph.